I actually signed up to this forum in 2016, with my first post asking about time-release melatonin and 5-htp. It was answered in 2017 by Gert even though it was long dead and I haven’t logged in a long time, it’s actually only recently that I logged back into this website. I logged back in because I wanted to hang out with fellow lucid dreamers. Unfortunately, the people I know in real life (including my family) are either disinterested or outright hostile against the idea of lucid dreaming. I can understand disinterest, but people who fall into the hostile latter are so closed-minded. Just wow. I’m glad I’m not one of them.

The virtual reality experience has always appealed to me. When I was a little kid, although I had no idea that the concept of lucid dreaming even existed, I’ve always dreamed (pun intended) of going into my own wonderland. I still remember watching that SpongeBob imagination box episode. My cousin and I actually tried to emulate that by putting ourselves in a dark secret passage way of our uncle’s house. I was such a goofball back then. Well, I still am, but to a much lesser extent obviously.

I do briefly remember having a very limited LD ability as a child, the one LD I remember back then was an unstable flying dream. I probably had more but I don’t remember them. Unfortunately, life threw a lot of crap at me, and I forgot about dreaming altogether. I also remember watching a movie about lucid dreaming as a kid, it was called “Sharkboy and Lavagirl.”

Have you ever seen that movie? If not, I suggest you DON’T go see it. It’s a terrible movie now that I look back, but I loved it as a kid, and it will always have a special place in my heart for re-introducing me to dreams when I’ve forgotten about them (although I thought the dreaming ability presented in the movie is purely fictional. It was only later on that I learned what lucid dreaming is and that it’s a very, very real skill/ability)Do you know any good lucid dreaming movies? I’d definitely like to know about them.

Alright, enough about my childhood. Let us now go into how I got back into lucid dreaming as a young adult in my early 20’s, which is right now.

The idea of virtual reality crossed into my mind again after a conversation with my dad about it. I asked him how long he thinks it will take before a highly refined and developed virtual reality machine will be created. He told me, probably 10-20 years or more. That is a long-ass time. I was a little disappointed, but then it came to me, the idea of lucid dreaming. I researched the internet about it and found out that it’s very real. Rebecca Turner’s free articles here on this website were my first sources of information to start my LD journey.

My dream recall was virtually non-existent when I first began, which was frustrating. I decided to just relax and wait for the day/night I actually recall a dream and write it down first thing in my journal. After a few weeks, it happened. I wrote my first dream. I might post it in the non-lucid section of this forum but I won’t detail it for now. From then on, my journey officially began. My dream recall improved rather quickly, and I earned my first lucid dream on the 8th night of my attempt. (I plan to post this in the lucid section later on, I already posted one particularly random LD there) then had several more.

Awesome, you might say? Unfortunately, I squandered my early success due to sheer laziness. Having to wake myself to either write my dream or perform an induction drained me of motivation. I was very, very inconsistent with writing my dream and performing inductions. I would often go several months without trying to LD. I was a naturally lazy person who lacked focus, and so this also affected my dreaming life.

However, somewhere in 2017, I made the firm decision to change this. I decided to get Daniel Love’s book “Are you Dreaming” and reading that changed my dreaming life forever. It was what allowed me to jump from “inconsistent beginner” to “almost intermediate.” Besides the incredible information in his book, he tells you that keeping a dream journal and practicing inductions isn’t easy, which many other authors often don’t mention probably to avoid scaring off newbies. It is one of those things that are simple (not complicated) to do but still requires work.

Simple but not easy, as they say. BTW I’m sure mentioning this isn’t against the rules, as Rebecca herself lists his book as one of her recommendations: http://www.world-of-lucid-dreaming.com/bestselling-books-on-lucid-dreaming.html

From then on, I made it a point to do WBTB (the one technique that has been most effective for me so far, and the technique that Daniel Love mentions first in his book) every day and jot down all my non-lucid dreams no matter how vague of a fragment. Basically, I did my best to follow Daniel Love’s instruction to a T. It took time, but eventually I started lucid dreaming again. I got several of them again. Eventually I started mixing WBTB with MILD and it increased the effectiveness even more. If you’re experiencing a lack of results despite consistent practice, I recommend Daniel Love’s book. It was what worked for me.

I’d be continuing this routine had college and life not gotten in the way. For the moment, I’m just practicing developing the habit of recalling whatever dream I have and writing them in my journal every morning. I will do my inductions when I don’t have class in the mornings and in the weekends when I don’t have class.

THE END

Anyway, that’s my long story. If you want the tl;dr version, it would be; I joined this forum to hang out with other lucid dreamers. (aka oneironaut if you prefer that term) as I want to share my journey (most of it anyway, there are some that are too private to share )

You are learning and over time your dreaming will be a way of life. I got myself a voice recorder and write mostly in the morning down part of what I have recorded. With gentle persistence you will advance.

erichsa wrote:You are learning and over time your dreaming will be a way of life. I got myself a voice recorder and write mostly in the morning down part of what I have recorded. With gentle persistence you will advance.

Thank you for the encouragement. Its funny that you mention the voice recorder,as one of Daniel's tips in his book is to get one to make recording dreams upon awakening or in the middle of the night less of a hassle,then transfer the recording into the journal. I did briefly employ this using my android phone's voice recorder. maybe I'll give that a try again